novapages.com » Photography

Flying low…

velda — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:59:40 +0000

D’oh! I totally missed the last launch this morning because this plane caught my attention as it was circling over my town. I wonder what they were up to?

Looks to be a Marine QB-067. Or maybe a QB-8067 if there is such thing.

A man and his best friend

velda — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:08:10 +0000

This is my friend with his dog, Rocket. I wasn’t happy with how these pictures worked. I need to figure my camera out, particularly when it comes to shooting people. But in spite of my lack of technical ability, it’s clear these two are good buddies.

Rocket wishing he could eat me

I need to learn to use my camera better. Thanks DtD for letting me take so many pictures!

WB Fails and a blue-eyed boy

velda — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:40:44 +0000

I shot a bunch of pictures at another family party recently. Not many of them turned out very well, but they should be great for the memories. My nephew had just scraped his little hands (hence the less-than-happy look on his face) and was standing in the doorway watching me get ready to take pictures of his baby sister in the shade. The inside of the house behind him was relatively dark, the indirect light of a sunny afternoon fairly bright, and the sky reflected nicely in his eyes. And I sort of like the way the blue is emphasized by my accidental failure to correct the white balance. I’d like to try taking more shots like this.

He's got the blues. But I sort of like the look...

For contrast, here’s the same boy eating some cantaloupe in a sunny living room, likely needing some white-balance correction in the other direction. I like this shot, too, but I think the other has an entirely different feel.

A boy and his cantaloupe

Pokéfans and the Not-so-Sleepy Nieces

velda — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:16:50 +0000

Just a couple of fun pictures from a recent family party. The lighting was pretty awful, but I thought these captured the essence of these particular boys and girls anyhow.

Playing Pokémon on the DSI

Do we have to go to bed?

Can’t take the sky from me

velda — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:43:02 +0000

I don’t remember who told me that real photographers don’t shoot sunsets because they’re too common. It’s true that all it takes is an appreciative eye and a camera — I’m not the real artist. But so it goes for most of the photos I take, and I love the sky especially. Particularly after my lovely little walk last night. Enjoy.

Sunset over the neighborhood pond

Serenity

(Oh, and yes of course, the title here is from Firefly’s theme song.)

Playing with Kels’ Camera

velda — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:51:35 +0000

So… I’ve neglected the photography section of my blog for a long time. The truth is, I started out with a pretty decent Nikon CoolPix 5700… or it was cool, at least, when I bought it. When that broke, I downgraded to a tiny little Canon Elph. And when that broke, I started using just my Droid. Sadness. I even had the money saved up for a new camera, but couldn’t bring myself to actually buy it.

Then I got to take a few pictures at work. Kels let me borrow his camera, and this is what I got. Not the typical plants and bugs like I like to shoot, but the wannabe-industrial-designer in me had a heyday.

So… I bought a camera the next day. It’s a Canon 60d and I bought a nice Tamron lens to go with it. Just getting to know it now, but hopefully I’ll get some fun pictures posted soon.

Perspective

velda — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:41:06 +0000

Amid the wreckage
of clashing goals and deadlines,
I beheld the sky

Perspective

This was taken with my droid. I was laying on the grass at UVU, having just finished a lab project that left me with 45 minutes — not enough time to go back to work, but enough time (given all the many things I had to do that day), that I was in a total panic over wasting it. So at the advice of a good friend, I bought myself a brownie, laid down in the sun, and focused on remembering to breathe. And of course once I had the breathing part down, I took a picture, and wrote a poem.

Since I haven’t been blogging much lately, I figured I might as well share it here. Things will be a bit calmer for me soon: Blendtec’s old graphic designer suddenly quit while I was at South by Southwest, leaving several unfinished projects with looming deadlines. I’ve been pinch-hitting for almost a month now, and that’s been lots of fun. Quite the adventure, too, since I’ve been doing all kinds of things I’d never done before. I have to admit I’m terribly excited for our new designer to join us sometime in the next few weeks.

Big Moon

velda — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:27:12 +0000

Now really, why DOES the moon look so much bigger with our eyes than it does with a camera? And why does it look so huge on the horizon, but tiny when it’s high in the sky? I read a web page once that speculated over some theories, and love this comic on the shrinking-moon camera phenomenon. Still, when I went to take out my recycling and saw this, I had to stop and TRY to take a picture. Or two. They don’t do it justice, but I’ll post them anyhow:

Moonrise over the neighbor's house using my corolla as a tripod. One of these days I'll buy a better camera than my Elph...

Moonrise through the maple tree, using my mailbox for stabilization...

Flowers

velda — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:51:52 +0000

I don’t know whether this was in direct response to my tweet or not, but just look what Aperture Science sent me for Valentine’s Day!

Did I ever tell you I love flowers? Yeah, I'm such a girl.

That’s my favorite of dozens of shots. Yeah, it’s safe to say I really dig flowers. And they were a very nice surprise, as I certainly wasn’t expecting anything for Valentine’s Day but the Blue Canary Nightlight I’d bought myself. And the card made me laugh, too. I still need to get a better picture of it, but you can find a printable version here… I got the dopamine one.

I asked the guy who introduced me to Portal (which I still need to finish, incidentally!) if he might know who sent them. His response: “I’m pretty sure the flowers are part of a malevolent social experiment by a twisted AI, but it’s always hard to tell with these things.” Well, twisted AI or not, the flowers are lovely.

Bee vs Ant

velda — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:42:16 +0000

An ant dragging a dead bee. I take strange photos sometimes.